"An Illustrated History of Skagit and Snohomish Counties." Interstate
Publishing Company, 1906. p. 757.
JOHN L. DALE
postmaster of Edison, came to Skagit county several years after his
parents, being attracted West by the possibilities of the country as represented
to him by his father. He has prospered since coming and today is not sorry that
he joined his fortunes with those of the Skagit county pioneers. Mr. Dale was
born in Venango county, Pennsylvania, September 7, 1854, the son of John L.
Dale, a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1814, an attorney at law, who practiced
his profession for twenty years in River Falls, Wisconsin, then moved to
Tennessee. The elder Dale came in the centennial year to Edison, where he died
in 1878. He saw long service in the Civil War, and at the time of his discharge
was a second lieutenant in the Thirtieth Wisconsin. Mrs. Massey (Jordan) Dale, a
native of the Keystone state, born in 1833, shared the fortunes of her husband
until his death. She passed away in Skagit county on Independence day of 1887,
leaving five children of whom John L. is third. Mr. Dale attended the schools of
Wisconsin and worked on his father's farm in that state until twenty years old
then accompanied his parents to Tennessee, where he leased land and operated
farms for twelve years. He remained in that southern state when his parents
moved to Washington, but ten years later he followed them. For four years after
his arrival here he worked in different places in the vicinity of Edison, and in
1890 he bought land which he sold to advantage in 1900. He then purchased the
house and lot in Edison where he now resides. July 16, 1897, he was appointed to
the postmastership of Edison, a position which he still holds at this writing.
He was chosen county commissioner in the fall of 1892 and served four years, all
of the time as chairman of the board.
December 28, 1875, Mr. Dale married Miss Lucy J. Brown, a native of
Nashville, Tennessee, and a daughter of Aquila Brown, a prominent citizen,
at one time sheriff of Davidson County, Tennessee, for eight years. He is still
living at the advanced age of eighty. Mrs. Martha J. Brown, the mother of Mrs.
Dale, was a native of Tennessee and was reared and married there. She died in
Nashville in 1884, leaving six children, of whom Mrs. Dale is third. Five
children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Dale: Annie L., Robert I., Jennie C.,
John L., Jr., and Edna M. In fraternal circles Mr. Dale is an Odd Fellow and
Mrs. Dale and her oldest daughter are Rebekahs. In political faith Mr. Dale is a
Republican. He is one of the prominent and influential citizens of Edison, a man
of energy, whose attainments are the results of earnest endeavor, assiduously
continued, and in no degree of fortuity.
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Submitted to the Washington Biographies Project in May 2008 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.